Local and General News.

Lake County Press, Volume VII, Issue 386, 3 October 1878, Page 2

Local and General News.

Telegraphic communication with Dunedin was suspended on Monday morning, and only resumed this morning. No mail has come to hand since Tuesday ."'week last, and there is no sign at present of any likely to arrive. An inquiry into the charges made hy certain members of the Miller's Flat School Committee against the teacher, Mr C. Anderson, was held in the school-house yesterday afternoon by Mr Smith, Inspector for the Southland Education Board Fifteen of the residents, were examined ; but, as the enquiry was conducted with closed doors, we are unable to give any report of the evidence. The Inspector will hand his recommendation to the Board at an early sitting ; and we shall then be able to publish the sequel to the disgraceful meetings of this Committee, reports of which have appeared in our columns. His Honor Judge Harvey, being unable to visit the Wakatip, gave judgment at Clyde in the ease of J. F. Healey (trustee in the insolvent estate of E. Donoghue) v. H. J. Cope—heard at the Arrow Court at last sitting—yesterday. Judgment was for plaintiff for £49 15s including costs. The communion service in the Presbyterian Church has been postponed to the first Sunday in November. The concert in aid of the Cadet Corps uniform fund is postponed to the 19th inst.

Applications for the office of Inspector of Nuisances, &c, for the municipality, are invited by the Council until 6 p.m. on Tuesday next. The ordinary monthly meeting of the County Council takes place on Monday next in Queenstown, when there will be a heavy business sheet to get through. Owing to the bad roads and a superabundance of their favourite element, the Good Templars have decided to* postpone their ordinary monthly harmony meeting, which should have been held on Saturday evening next. By the last Suez mail a gentleman in Melbourne received a packet of peas, which were taken from the folds of an Egyptian mummy, unrolled in the British Museum, 3,000 years old. On receiving them he placed some of them in a glass of water, and in twenty-four hours they had swelled considerably. They were then taken oot and planted in pots, with good manure, and are now springing into life; The author of the next chapter on birds' nests will be able to adorn his tale with the following story of a poor old hollow-backed horse, which we clip from the 'Lyttelton Times:'—" Mr G*- Eitchie, baker, of Colombo street north, informs us of a curious circumstance. He possesses a faithful old horse, of exceedingly quiet ways, and one of the hens belonging to him had taken to reposing on the animal's back. A few days since he was somewhat astonished to find that the hen had chosen this singular place upon which to lay her eggs. Mr Eitchie has satisfied himself by ocular demonstration of the truth of this freak." A large conger eel, measuring over 6ft and weighing nearly 301b, was caught recently by a waterman at Port Chalmers. The fish had got foul of the chain cable- of the barque Stracathro lying in the powder ground. The wife of a tinker recently gave birth to four children, three boys and a girl, in a cave off the road leading along the shore, about two miles from Oban. The 'Tuapeka Times' learns that Mr Eobert Kemp, of Waitahuna, has received an engagement as general manager on Mount Eoyal Farm, near Palmerston. Mr Kemp has been some years a resident at "Waitahuna, and has taken an active interest in the annual ploughing match and everything having an agricultural bearing upon the district. He sold his horse, Lord Paisley, in Dunedin a few days ago.